On View

Neo-Babylonian

Panel with striding lion

The lion was sacred to Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love and war. This striding beast is one of more than a hundred that once lined the lower portion of the walls of a processional way that passed through the Ishtar Gate in ancient Babylon. During the New Year festival, images of the gods were carried down this street, named ‘the enemy shall never pass’ (aibur-shabu in Babylonian). The lions provided a dramatic, heraldic approach to the gate and served as symbolic protectors and guides for those participating in the ritual.

About the work

Located in what is now Iraq, Babylon was one of the oldest and most powerful cities in the ancient world. This lion was one of hundreds that once decorated the massive walls lining the 250-meter Processional Way, built around 575 BCE by King Nebuchadnezzar II to connect the monumental Ishtar Gate to the temple of Marduk, the patron god of the city. Lions were associated with royalty—royals were the only ones allowed to hunt them. Lions were also symbols of Ishtar, the goddess of love and war. Any visitor to Babylon traveling on the Processional Way would be struck by the power and wealth of the city, as well as its divine favor.

In the absence of abundant quarries for stone or forests for lumber, Mesopotamian builders relied on clay, the most plentiful natural material in the Tigris-Euphrates floodplain. The clay was mixed with water, sand, and a binding material (usually straw or reeds), then molded into a rectangular shape and fired. In the late 19th century, German archaeologists began methodically excavating Babylon, and found the scattered remains of the Processional Way. After the Processional Way was reconstructed to scale in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, lion reliefs such as this example were sold to museums around the world.

Discussion Questions

Ask your students to collect specific observations about the condition of the bricks. What historical events or environmental factors could explain their condition?

Writing/Making/Doing

Design a Babylonian-style processional way for your own town or city. What significant symbols would line it? Where in the city would you place it? What kinds of materials might be used today?